Everyone wants press, but few understand how to approach the press to get that elusive article that can accelerate a business. This presentation covers my learnings from 10 years of trying.

1. @CraigVodnik@CraigVodnik
Building an Effective PR Strategy through
Relationships
How to make friends with journalists so that everyone wins
Craig Vodnik - June 18, 2015

2. @CraigVodnik
Objective
Share my experience in learning how to build
relationships to earn press.
(10 years in the making, lots of money spent trying to find the answer to the question of why won’t
journalists write about me, lots of arguments over why a pr agency isn’t achieving the desired results,
discussions over the value of pr, etc…)

3. @CraigVodnik
About me
From Bensenville (Victory Auto Wreckers!)
UIUC Nuclear Engineering grad ‘92
First web page in 1995
Webmaster for Chicago Tribune in 1995
E-commerce since 1999
Founded e-commerce company cleverbridge in 2005
Bootstrapped to $40 mil revenue in 2014

4. @CraigVodnik

5. @CraigVodnik

6. @CraigVodnik
Not just traditional journalists
Includes
○ Bloggers
○ Podcasts
○ Industry Analysts
○ Tech Conferences
○ Companies
○ Service providers
○ Anyone that you can influence

7. @CraigVodnik
Examples - Service Provider

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Examples - Industry Analyst

9. @CraigVodnik
Examples - Journalist

10. @CraigVodnik
PR Agency - year 3
East Coast top tech PR firm
Assigned one mid-level employee
Devoted about 80 hours a month to us
We paid $10k per month
Received several ancillary mentions in second and
third tier publications
Did teach us about analyst relations

11. @CraigVodnik
In-house Part-Time - year 5
Former journalist
Managing our small marketing team
Wrote press releases
Some mentions, interviews, whitepapers
Better awareness and some more meaningful
interviews
Had more of a story to leverage

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In-house Full-Time - year 8
SaaS experienced PR veteran
Focused exclusively on telling our story
Writes press releases, engages with journalists,
understands where our story meets journalist’s
need for information
100+ mentions a year, interviews, even contributes
whitepapers and other content

13. @CraigVodnik
Email Example
I hope you’ve been well. I wanted to gauge your interest in a tech/business story angle – “Chicago: The (Rising) E-Commerce Capital of the U.
S.” Long known as a retail hub, Chicago e-commerce has been spurred by Braintree’s (owned by eBay) continued growth, GrubHub’s IPO,
Groupon’s move into e-commerce, and numerous other rising companies such as cleverbridge and WeDeliver. There has also been a rise of e-
commerce companies that have decided to establish satellite offices in Chicago, such as German’s hybris and Sweden’s inRiver, along with e-
commerce service integrators and consulting firms such as Acquity Group (part of Accenture Interactive) and Razorfish. This doesn’t even
mention that Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition (IRCE), one of the largest e-commerce shows in the world, and North American Bitcoin
Conference (NABC), the world's largest Bitcoin conference, are both hosted in Chicago every year.
However, as interesting as the current Chicago e-commerce hotbed, is the "PayPal Mafia"-esque wave that will spawn from the success of the
current companies. As these e-commerce companies continue to grow, along with industry veterans such as Orbitz, there will ultimately be
more companies founded in the space. For instance, Groupon co-founders Brad Keywell and Eric Lefkofsky help to run venture capital firm
Lightbank, founded in 2010 and based on Chicago.
Any interest in this story? I’d love to schedule some time to chat again with our co-founder Craig Vodnik regarding the hotbed, the major
players and the potential future in Chicago.

14. @CraigVodnik
Twitter Example

15. @CraigVodnik
Insight about Journalists
They are people too
Have deadlines
Lots of noise to wade through
Want stuff served on a platter
“cleverbridge was the first company to pitch an idea that
was talking about the industry instead of themselves.”
http://2xmedia.co/podcast/ep14/

16. @CraigVodnik
What can you do?
Focus on 5 to 10 relevant journalists
Dedicate regular weekly time (Once a month, proactive ideas)
Follow the thread (like buying a house)
Engage online
Be thoughtful, helpful
Share story ideas that aren’t self-promotional
Talk about trends in the industry
Build relationships

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To Do List
1. Name 5 publications that you want to be in
2. Find the person that typically writes about your
industry/topic
3. Follow those people on twitter
4. Share articles on twitter by those people, including the
person’s twitter account (like @CraigVodnik)
5. Comment on that person’s articles
6. Spend 15 minutes repeating steps 4 and 5

18. @CraigVodnik
Thank you for your attention, now let’s take
some questions!

19. @CraigVodnik@CraigVodnik
Appendix
Additional Examples

20. @CraigVodnik
Example
I want to touch base and offer a unique user/business shift story. Founded in 2008, Malwarebytes built a successful software business on the
back of its flagship product, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Pro, which is the #1 anti-malware with over 300 million downloads. However, as
Malwarebytes continued to grow, it proved increasingly difficult to increase revenue, provide sustainable support and acquire customers
while only offering a $25 lifetime perpetual license for its popular software product. On March 24, 2014, in a major shift for its business and
its customers, the company switched to a subscription business model – a move that took a lot of deliberation, planning and development.
Making the switch presented distinct challenges from a business and marketing perspective, including the issue of retaining customers
already acclimated to the perpetual licensing model. According to Marcin Kleczynski, CEO, Malwarebytes, “We didn’t want to alienate an
extremely loyal user base, who had been accustomed to our lifetime licenses for Malwarebytes Anti-Malware PRO, by switching them to a
yearly subscription. When making the switch, we wanted to add extra value for users having a subscription versus the perpetual license.”
Any interest in receiving the full user story or speaking with Malwarebytes and/or cleverbridge about the business model switch and what
it took from a business, marketing and e-commerce perspective? Thanks!
Actual article: https://www.internetretailer.com/2014/09/22/software-manufacturer-builds-revenue-through-subsriptions

21. @CraigVodnik
Example
Every day we see another company raising $10M or $50M of outside capital, which makes sense as the dollar figures can be eye-popping,
there's a concrete event to write about, and the ever-present controversy: how can this brand-new business be worth so much? However, we
hardly ever hear about the startups that become big, valuable companies without taking outside capital. Some may have started by founders
who had money to burn from earlier ventures, while others had really scrappy entrepreneurs who figured out how to make ends meet.
cleverbridge, a global e-commerce provider, is one of those bootstrapping success stories - growing the company from the four original
founders in 2005 to more than 250 employees worldwide today - with 300 international clients, including Avira, Corel, Dell, Malwarebytes
and Parallels, and global sales of nearly $450 million in 2013.
What’s even more unique about co-founders Christian Blume and Craig Vodnik, who took the risk of leaving safe employment, steady income
and working 2 years without a salary, living off of savings to bootstrap the company, is the rare approach they took when starting the
company. While most companies start in the U.S. or Europe and then try to expand into the other market (many times unsuccessfully), they
decided to begin as a global company (Germany & US) and make it work to their advantage. While not easy with three co-founders in
Germany and one in Chicago, the company used it to their advantage, especially now today as they help companies all over the world break
into the global market – understanding local taxation, e-commerce and pricing strategies, buying behaviors, etc.
I’d love to schedule a quick 20-minute call with you and Christian and/or Craig to chat about how companies can achieve financial viability
without external funding and entrepreneurism – do you have a few minutes? Amongst other things he can discuss: how they secured the
initial cash to start the company, tactics they used to save their limited cash in the beginning, finding/hiring talent on a limited budget, etc.

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Outline - Continued(2)
1. Shared experience
a. Mention in social media (retweets)
b. Blogging
i. Clint Wilson
ii. v.i. Labs
c. James Janega, BlueSky emails
d. E-commerce in Chicago
i. http://www.chicagotribune.com/bluesky/originals/chi-cleverbridge-2checkout-rippleshot-
ecommerce-bsi-story.html
ii. https://twitter.com/CraigVodnik/status/511598808837652480
e. Award submissions